A Maltese investigative journalist who exposed the island nation's links to offshore tax havens through the leaked Panama Papers was killed Monday when a bomb exploded in her car, the prime minister said.

A Maltese investigative journalist who exposed the island nation's links to offshore tax havens through the leaked Panama Papers was killed Monday when a bomb exploded in her car, the prime minister said.

Alec Baldwin has reprised in his role as Donald Trump for the latest episode of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, identifying the US president as the true martyr of the tragic Charlottesville rally.

When a fairly innocuous question about autopsy results in passports being confiscated and extra police being assigned to your hotel, you can’t help but wonder what the hell is going to happen, reporter Pete Stefanovic tells.

Gray joins WA power remerger critics

Having long regarded the 2006 break-up of Western Power an abject failure, Premier Colin Barnett is trying to find a way to reamalgamate two of its former component companies, Synergy and Verve Energy.

Despite copping criticism from industry leaders - whom he knew would resist the move because it would threaten their "good deals" - Mr Barnett says the decision is final and intractable.

Verve and Synergy at one stage bid against each other in competing for gas from the Chevron-led Gorgon project, which had pushed up prices and produced a "dysfunctional outcome", Mr Barnett says.

The premier believes the decision to remerge is about slowing down the surge in the state's power prices, and says the government is not interested in competition for competition's sake.

On the heels of local criticism of the idea, Mr Gray on Thursday said it would diminish competition in the market and lead to higher electricity prices.

"Competition drives down prices - there is a need for increased competition in the Western Australian electricity market, not less," he said.

Related Articles

Mr Gray claimed the Premier's plan would also risk private sector investment in electricity generation, which ironically Mr Barnett blamed in part for the price rises.

James Pearson, chief executive of WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said competition at both the generating and retailing ends of the supply chain would be significantly weakened.

Matthew Warren, chief executive of the Energy Supply Association of Australia, said even the independent WA Economic Regulation Authority believed a remerger of Verve and Synergy would not address the real drivers of rising energy costs.

State opposition leader Mark McGowan also says the plan is flawed.

"It appears Mr Barnett is the only person in Western Australia that thinks remerging Verve and Synergy will provide any benefits to Western Australians," he said.